Thursday, March 10, 2011

Quebec stops fracking

Quebec stops fracking

Quebec is halting a common practice used to get oil and gas out of the ground.

The government says it intends to respect a report that recommends fracking be halted until more studies have been done.

Gary Leach, with the Small Explorers and Producers of Canada tells 660News environmental jitters over fracking, are unfounded.

"The shale gas formations that are being fracked are literally thousands and thousands of feet below any ground water that's usually tapped for irrigation, or drinking water," he says. "So based on 60 years and probably at least a million wells in North America that have been fracked, there's no evidence that this process has been linked to contamination."

Leach says the vast majority of wells drilled today have to be fracked to produce anything.

He says Quebec is new to shale gas exploration, and will probably re-instate fracking once they get more experienced with how it really works.